Laurie Colwin

This delightful comedy of manners and morals is about romantic friendship, romantic marriage, and romantic love--about four people who are good-hearted and sane, lucky and gifted, and who find one another. Knowing that happiness is an art form that requires energy, discipline, and talent, Guido, Holly, Vincnt, and Misty deal with jealousy, estrangement, and other perils involved in the search for love.

Happy All the Time

abi a

Misty's personality was a deliberate creation. She felt she was not unlike one of those seashells that looks elaborate, but is only the housing for a very soft animal.

readingsnmusings 

** spoiler alert **
           A reread of my first Colwin!

"At college they fooled around, spent money, and wondered what would become of them when they grew up."

"He was serious in matters of the heart, and serious in matters of aesthetics."

"And why do you find your colleagues so disgusting?”
“Look at them,” said Misty. “They are disgusting. So clean. So gentile. So comfortable. So well fed. Rich people make me sick.”

"There was a certain sweetness in the midst of his silliness, and he looked like a man who wanted to be played with".

"Education, she said, was something that enriched your life—not something you did things with."

The whole book is underlined!!!!

very very good writing, truly fantastic insane woman representation

Jennifer Dieter

pippa

Guido and Vincent, best friends (and third cousins), aren't expecting to fall head-over-heels in love, but that is exactly what happens. Guido is smitten with Holly, a dazzling young woman who chafes at the idea of complacency, while Vincent falls for Misty, a work colleague with an acerbic sense of humor who seems as uninterested in love as she is in Vincent (at first). In the months that follow, both couples will experience the rituals of courtship, jealousy, estrangement, family entanglements, and other perils of the heart, as they try to find love in spite of themselves. Colwin is a master of portraying the messiness of life: here in hilarious and endearing prose, she follows these two improbable pairs, and their families, as they navigate and ultimately find happiness together—if not all the time, but for most of it. A modern classic first published in 1978, Happy All the Time is as much a sophisticated romantic comedy about the love between two partners as it is a novel about the powerful bonds shared by family members, friends, colleagues and confidants.

Happy All the Time

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